Every mom and grandmother and great-grandmother I know is a skilled and frequent time traveler who can take a sentimental journey anytime she wants.

LAS CRUCES – Sci-fi fans don’t have to look far to find someone with amazing superpowers, an adventurous soul who can transcend time and space at will.

Every mom, grandmother and great-grandmother I know is a skilled and frequent time traveler, who can take a sentimental journey anytime she wants.

And sometime, when she doesn’t want to, or wishes she could restrain herself, because it can be downright embarrassing for her kids. I suspect many a mom has been tempted to dig up that adorable drooping diaper baby photo when our teenaged son is introducing us to his first serious girlfriend, or maybe even when he’s posing for that obligatory junior prom photo in his first tux.

He looks almost as cute as he did in his birthday suit when he was taking his first bath. Wait, we’ll show you the photo. We know right where it is (even if our baby was born long before the advent of the smartphone photo album).

The mom memory bank is generally brimming with magical moments. They can pop up at any time, and sometimes in a striking montage, triggered by what would seem to be a random glance or thought.

Here, arbitrarily starting with birth, is a sampling of what’s in my soulful memory bank. If you check with your mom today, I’ll bet she can time travel to many similar places, leaping decades in seconds.

There’s that first cry. The first time you make eye/soul contact with your newborn. It might convince you that there’s something to reincarnation. It certainly showed me a new depth and dimension of love.

First word. First crawl, and the amazing wind-up to that move. First step. First ecstatic food experience (butterscotch pudding and strained carrots, of all things, wowed my baby Ryan). First meeting of Ryan and my mom. First giggle.

It all goes pretty fast, but the firsts keep coming. First tooth, and before you know it, tooth fairies and permanent teeth and wisdom teeth getting yanked out.

Kisses, hugs and cuddles. Toddler dances and grade school plays. First song, first day of school, first attempts at a musical instrument and then — in the flash of an eye — recording, touring, on regular MTV rotation.

The baby that was gurgling happily just a second ago is telling someone, “She’s with the band,” and handing you ear plugs and a VIP pass.

“You can’t imagine what it’s like to hear 20,000 people singing music you wrote and shouting your lyrics at you, mom!”

You can’t imagine what it’s like to see your son being so creative and doing so well at something he loves so much.

There are tough times, too. Knee scrapes and fights. Bee stings and lost loves. Disappointments and failures and injustices. You can’t be an effective cheerleader if you reveal that the bad times hurt you as much as they hurt him. Maybe more. Thankfully, those memories seem to fade more quickly than the great times, or even the everyday fun and routine experiences you may not fully appreciate while they’re happening.

Sometimes, the things that make top 'o the memory bank may surprise you, like a squabble resolved by taking the neighborhood kids to a vacant lot to pull up daisies and wildflowers by the roots. Or a tender moment when an adult kid reached out to hold your hand during a quiet walk.